A Distraction
by Zalein
Summary: Vlad narrowed his eyes. The stolen goods were safely in the helicopter, and everything was in place to transport them to safety. Now all he needed was a distraction to keep Daniel from ruining everything. Not to worry, though--Vlad was already plotting...


In spite of how poorly his plans had gone, Vlad was not worried. He was becoming tired, yes, but not only was young Daniel in a much more unfortunate condition, the young boy had far more to lose if defeated than Vlad did. After all, the situation had been perfectly set up so that any errors on his part would conveniently indicate that 'Public Enemy number 1' was to blame for the theft, and no one would ever suspect that anyone else might have had anything to do with it. It was genius, and it was brilliant—after all, he had planned it all, hadn't he?

"Give it up, Plasmius!" shouted Daniel, his voice sounding small and the false bravado in it painfully obvious in the enormous warehouse they were in. The perfectly arranged rows of crates and boxes absorbed all sound almost before it had left its origin, which was useful to anyone who might want to lurk unseen. Of course, stealth wasn't exactly a problem for either of the half-ghosts, considering that they could both go invisible and intangible at will; it was impossible to find something that couldn't be seen or touched if said thing didn't want to be found (usually), and Vlad certainly didn't want to be found. Daniel, however, had no such restrictions.

Just what kind of an upbringing had Jack given Maddie's son, for the boy to be yelling and glowing brightly in a dark warehouse with an enemy lurking about? More importantly, was it reversible? Vlad certainly hoped so—a resource such as Daniel would never be expendable. The boy's youth and still-changing personality were advantages to be exploited, and Vlad Masters was never one to let opportunities like this slip through his fingers. However, that process was not about to be completed any time soon, and there were much more immediate problems at hand.

Namely the problem of the 'hero' having chased his 'enemy' (time would change those immature labels, Vlad was sure) to a not-quite-abandoned-warehouse, where they had reached an impasse of sorts. The boy's little friends were waiting outside with their new Fenton EctoSpotters, Daniel was inside trying clumsily goad him into view, and Vlad was crafting a plan. The board was set: he knew where his king—or in this case, his get-away helicopter—was. The bishop was two rows before him and about fifteen feet to the left, and the rook and knight were waiting outside. The latter two would probably begin to circle the warehouse soon. One of them would most likely enter the warehouse to try to help their friend while the other stayed outside in case Vlad tried to escape—he would need to take that into account. He could work with this, but if he did what he thought he could, he would need to—

A blazing column of silver-blue light lanced through the air where his head had just been. "Eat Fenton-Thermos, Plasmius!"

Vlad swiveled around in his crouch to see that the brat's little girl friend had somehow contrived to sneak up some distance behind him, and was quickly redirecting her aim with the thermos. Enormous goggles covered over half her face, its multiple facets glittering in the dim light like a giant insect's.

Vlad held the stolen package he had closer to his body and quickly switched intangible to dive through the crates beside him. Scowling darkly as he sensed his younger counterpart speeding towards the source of all the noise and thermos-light, he stayed in a crouch as he hurried away. When he was half a dozen rows further he dove to one side, crouching behind an enormous box of something that glinted through a tear in the cardboard. Whatever it was was metal, and would protect him from those insufferable goggles for a few moments.

"Sam, are you okay—"

"I don't believe it! I had him right in front of me and I missed! He went off that way, Danny, hurry." There was a _click!_ accompanied by the irritating Fenton-Thermos light disappearing, followed by the sound of two pieces of metal being angrily forced together.

"You're sure you're alright?" said Daniel worriedly. Vlad's expression grew a little more smug; he could incorporate the boy's concern for his friends into his plans someday, though this wasn't exactly breaking news.

Samantha sounded even more annoyed. "Of course I am! What are you waiting for, he's getting away!"

"Uh—right!"

"Wait, Danny!"

"What is it—"

"Over there, I see some ecto-readings!"

Vlad cursed silently to himself, glancing at the boy's ecto-glow reflected on the ceiling to see just how fast the boy moved while he looked for other ways to make his escape. Just as he was about to leap to his feet he noticed the glow growing fainter—Daniel was heading _away_ from him, not towards. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Vlad sprang into a run with the litheness of a panther, cape billowing behind him as he headed towards one wall with his prize under one arm.

Vlad Masters prided himself as a man who planned for everything and made allowances for all unprecedented developments. Even so, the shouts of surprise he heard then were slightly less expected than what he heard next.

"Beware, for I am the Box Ghost!"

Vlad quickened his pace from the cautious prowl it had become, his face returning to a comfortable expression of scorn. He watched as a blaze of blue light lit up a distant part of the warehouse's ceiling. The Box Ghost wailed in dismay at his sudden capture, and the cry was almost immediately cut off by an irritated _click_ he could hear all the way from there.

Not breaking stride, the older half-ghost made extra sure that his precious cargo was as intangible as the rest of him, before striding right through a warehouse wall and out of this ridiculous situation he had somehow found himself in.

"What's in the package anyway, Plasmius—something else money couldn't buy? You know, like my mom?" Daniel taunted, drawing a snarl from his opponent that poorly covered a flinch. Almost as soon as the expression had started Vlad turned it into a poisonous smile.

"I don't know how you managed to follow me, little badger," Vlad replied, his voice low and deceptively calm, "but I assure you it won't do you much good."

"Put the package down and leave, Plasmius! I already have enough problems without you buzzing around."

They stayed where they were for a long, tense moment, Vlad half-in and half-out of the helicopter and Daniel some fifteen feet away, both the boy's fists charged with an ecto-blast that would surely damage the helicopter beyond repair. Vlad didn't care about the helicopter so much as he didn't want his current means of traveling easily to Wisconsin destroyed. When Vlad didn't move Daniel began adjusting his stance, as though getting ready to fire a warning shot. Vlad's eyes narrowed, before carelessly sweeping a hand behind him, using the billow of his cape to hide the fact that he had just dropped the package on the helicopter seat behind him. His arm was now both empty and hidden in black folds.

"Very well, Daniel—"

"Don't call me that!"

Vlad didn't bother to hide his smirk. Even now he was in control, knowing just what to say to completely distract his future apprentice from things the man didn't want noticed. "—what are your terms?"

There was another round of silence, this one caused by the younger of the two blinking owlishly. "Uh… terms?"

Vlad's adjusted his expression to seem annoyed (though frankly the boy's inherited stupidity made it unnecessary to completely fake it.) "You win, little badger. I cannot leave with my treasure without you destroying my helicopter, and perhaps injuring…" Vlad rose an eyebrow at the boy's uncomfortable fidgeting at the word, and he repeated it for effect. "… yes, injuring my pilot. If I stay here, will you allow him to leave unharmed?"

"Uh…" Daniel had an incredibly naïve expression, at a loss for words. Vlad noted with interest that whoever coined the term 'deer-in-headlights' must have gotten it from the boy in front of him. "This is, uh, weird… since when do you care about anyone who works for you, anyway?"

"Good pilots and chauffeurs are so hard to find these days." Vlad replied evasively, curling his lip at the boy before him. He was impressed—the boy knew him well.

"But this is wierd!" Daniel repeated himself, sounding insistent. "You're up to something, I know it!" When Vlad's only reply was a pointed look towards the helicopter, the boy stared hard at him. In a few years his expression might have been a frown, the older hybrid thought. What would it be like, to watch the years teach those open blue eyes to mask the suspicion and doubt behind them more carefully than they do now? Vlad stared unreadably back, until Daniel broke the silence. "Fine. Go ahead."

At a gesture from Vlad the craft's propellers began rotating. Soon both half-ghosts were narrowing their eyes against the wind, and then waiting for the roar to die away as the helicopter lifted slowly into the air. Once it was high enough it left as soon as it could, swaying drunkenly with a ghost for a pilot—a pilot much less vulnerable than the kind Vlad had led the boy to believe he had. Once it was gone the older hybrid turned his attention back to the boy before him, smirking like a cat with canary feathers caught between its teeth. Now all he needed was time for the helicopter to get far enough that the boy wouldn't be able to simply follow. Vlad would catch up to it afterwards using his superior speed, and that would be his escape. It would be simple, except that now he needed something unusual to the boy distracted.

"O-kay…" Daniel said slowly, his large eyes looking suddenly apprehensive. "Your pilot-guy's gone, now hand it over!"

"Now why would I do that? Really, young Daniel—you've not only released the one hostage, but allowed your enemy to succeed in his goal before your very eyes."

"I don't need a hostage to beat you! And what the heck are you talking about, anyway?!"

The cat-caught-the-canary smile grew even wider now, Vlad lifted his hands to either side to show how just empty they both were. Daniel's eyes widened in surprise, before he groaned.

"Damnit, Vlad! Everyone's going to think I did it, now!"

"Of course. I planned for it."

"You _what_!? You fruitloop dirt-bag!" Vlad laughed at the boy's outrage, easily conjuring a shield as one of the ecto-blasts the boy had been holding shot towards him.

"Now now, son, is that really something to call your future father?"

Disgust flitted across the boy's face. "Cut the whole offer-deal crap, Plasmius—I'm less in the mood for it now than I usually am!"

"That's rather unfortunate, Daniel—almost as unfortunate as what your mother never told you."

"What?" Daniel snapped. "That creepy, _lonely_ old men tend to give hell to people who're just trying to do the right thing?"

Vlad's eyes narrowed at the barbed retort, diving into his lies with a vengeance. "Actually, I was referring more to your parentage. There's something I think it's time you knew, boy—something I doubt even your father knows. Maddie and I do, however—sweet Maddie…"

"Cut the crap, Plasmius!" Daniel looked positively green, now, and disturbed at a level high enough that Vlad wasn't sure he had even seen before. If Vlad hadn't been smothering his indignation at the strong reaction (after all, he wasn't _that_ repulsive,) he might have been amused.

"You see, Daniel—Jack may have raised you, but he was never your father. Has it ever occurred to you that all this time there might have been a _reason_ why I've gone for you and Maddie, and only you two? She is your mother, Daniel—and _I_ am your father."

The silence that followed was so thunderous it could have been measured on the Richter scale.

Then Daniel, sounding very loud and very disturbed, snapped right back "No you're not!"

"I assure you, Daniel, I am." Vlad smirked again, but there was no real energy behind it. The boy's absolutely appalled reaction had somehow left him feeling drained and tired, and Vlad wondered if his helicopter was far enough away yet. His distraction was working, but he wished he had chosen a different subject—after all, wishing that the one he had chosen was true was something he did every day of his life.

"Dude, _seriously_—you're not. First of all, ew. I didn't know even fruit-loops like you could get that creepy. Second of all, Dad sat Jazz and I down for four hours when he made the Fenton-Portal DNA-lock thing to talk about genetics. He showed us the similarities in our DNA-graphs and… and—well, let's just say that every hope I've—I mean, Jazz had ever had of having been adopted was crushed."

"Then you acknowledge that the idea of being adopted has its appeal." Vlad interjected smoothly.

"I never said that!" Daniel insisted again, looking ready to stomp like the young child he was. "I just said I liked the idea of not inheriting obsessive compulsive disorders, and all those other things Jazz rants about!"

"Actually, you didn't say that." Vlad pointed out, folding his arms and forcing a smirk. This conversation was quickly becoming tiresome, much like every rejection on Daniel's and Maddie's part did. Someday their answers would change, but tonight he was finding himself longing for the silence of his private study and a small glass of something strong.

"Well I'm saying it now!" Daniel snapped angrily. "So stop insulting my family already, because I'm not about to change anyone in it for anything!"

"You may think that now, Daniel, but someday…" The smirk was gone, and the dangerously quiet tone was back.

"Someday nothing!"

"Someday, Daniel." Vlad repeated, watching the boy grit his teeth and conjure two unusually bright ecto-blasts. It was time to leave. "You will change your mind." Vlad drew his cape around himself suddenly and disappeared, becoming intangible just before the ecto-blasts gouged out two craters a few dozen feet behind him.

"Plasmius! Come back and finish this, you ecto-acne-faced fruit-loop!" Daniel bellowed furiously, conjuring another pair of shots. Vlad ignored him, having already taken flight. By the time Daniel had looked to the sky to repeat his demand, Vlad was almost out of hearing range, speeding away in the direction his helicopter had left.

_Author's Note: Special thanks to Pixiegirl13 for looking over this for me. _


End file.
